Joseph Andrews: A Satire of Modern Times

Unlike some critics, who have viewed Joseph Andrews as Fielding's declaration of a personal moral ethic, Varey seeks to locate the novel in the context of 18th-century Britain and thereby show how the text operates as a satire on the developing bourgeois mentality. The book analyzes the novel by theme, and showing the link between the work and the society it portrays, argues that the novel is a valuable cultural artefact.